US stocks closed mostly higher on the back of strong earnings and following the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep interest rates unchanged.Asian markets were mostly higher in early Thursday trade following the Federal Reserve’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged and ahead of a slew of corporate earnings.

Nifty closes above 10000 first time ever

Making record a habit of sorts, the Nifty on Wednesday closed above 10,000 in a first and the Sensex set a fresh life high, powered by unabated capital inflows amid quarterly earnings optimism. Speculators covered their short positions ahead of the July derivatives expiry on Thursday, building up the momentum.

IDBI Federal Life Insurance in talks for 100% stake sale

IDBI Federal Life Insurance, a three-way joint venture between IDBI Bank, Federal Bank and Belgian insurer Ageas, is exploring the possibility of a 100% stake sale, which would potentially lead to a complete exit for all three stakeholders, reports Mint.

The National Company Law Tribunal allowed banks to initiate insolvency proceedings against Bhushan Steel and another firm, Bhushan Steel and Power.

Axis Bank set to buy Freecharge from Snapdeal for up to Rs400 crore

Axis Bank Ltd is nearing a deal to buy digital payments platform Freecharge for Rs350-400 crore in cash, giving much-needed breathing space to the latter’s parent Snapdeal, which is separately in talks to sell itself to larger rival Flipkart.

Airtel to launch VoLTE service to counter Reliance Jio

Bharti Airtel Ltd plans to take on Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd by launching its own VoLTE (a 4G voice network) service by March 2018, and working with phone makers on new low-cost 4G feature phones, Gopal Vittal, chief executive and managing director of Airtel said during a call with analysts.

Earnings corner

Biocon, Crompton Greaves, Glenmark Pharma, HCL Technologies, ICICI Bank, Idea, ITC, Maruti Suzuki and ONGC are among the companies that will be announcing their June quarter earnings on Thursday.